Another Surf City CX #2 report-Scott Schlachter

Sunday I brought my dad with me, and headed down to Watsonville on Sunday a.m. for another 30 minutes of suffering with company. It was really fun though - the Bellas did a really great job with the course (loved the spiral thingy), the decorations, and running another great event. Big thank you again to Matt for loaning me his bike again. I think it really paid off on this course - as it was definitely a faster course then the first one.

Not to sound too much like a chick, but I always seem to struggle with what to wear for these things. During practice, I wore a windbreaker over a longsleeve jersey over a shortsleeve jersey, and I was still cold in sections. In the end, about 5 minutes before our start I decided to go for just the TWW DH jersey - long sleeve, but not as thick as the long-sleeve TWW XC jersey that I got a few (3?) years ago. Similar to the first race, I found that if I just downed a bunch of water right before the race, I didn't need any more for the race, so no worries about not having any pockets.

I lined up about 2-3 rows back, which turned out to be fine. I find that I seem to do a lot of passing right away, but so far these courses seem to be OK for that. The course was fun, starting right off with a trip through the obstacle-graveyard and the blair witch spiral, then a little DH section to the one big climb (bigger then any from the last race). Then after that climb that one short hill that was totally rideable if you just tried. Then a lot of flats. I managed to gain ground in the flats on my first lap, and going into the 2nd lap I managed to catch the lead group. At one point in lap 2, I'm pretty sure I was in 2nd place.

I seemed to blow up a little after lap 2. Going into the flat section about half way through the third lap, suddenly I experienced something that also happened to me towards the end of the first race - some sort of asthma-like attack. Very strange. I suddenly was having a very hard time breathing, and had to consciously take slow deep breaths for about 30 seconds. After that, I brought my intensity down a little, and I was fine, but feeling like I was in survival mode. My mind drifted, and as I approached the finish line I wasn't sure if there was another lap to go! I know it sounds stupid, but I was blurring my first race lap with my practice lap... 20 yards from the finish 2 guys passed me from behind. I realized my mistake too late. I stood up, but couldn't quite catch the 2nd guy. A lesson learned for sure - keep track of your laps!

And, once again - that was about the hardest 30 minutes ever. I think I'd have really struggled with the 5 laps/45 mins that the A's and B's did. Kyle, Matt, and Jeff, you guys are studs...

All the shouts of encouragement during the race from Gin, Dawn, and others were great. It really helps mentally to have other teammates and friends present and encouraging you - for me anyway. I passed Matt’s bike back to him, changed, and stuck around long enough to shout at Hane to go faster on a couple of his laps before checking my results and taking off. I'm now not sure if I was looking at the results of the first race or not though – if not, then coincidentally I got 5th again, and one of the guys (4th place) who sprinted passed me right before the end was in my class and had apparently done the same thing to me in the first race. I guess I'll find out for sure when they post the results.

I also chatted a little bit with Dave from Vanderkitten before taking off. It was Dave who loaned me his Ahrens Apex free-ride-hard-tail bike for the CCCX DH#2 race a while back. He and his wife own Vanderkitten (www.vanderkitten.com), pretty cool women’s clothing company - seems to fit the Bella style perfectly, and a good fit (haha) to have them be one of the race sponsors. That new Ahrens Apex that they got for Dave's wife had a sweeeeet paint job for sho.

I'm hooked on this series, so I'll see ya'll at #3 on the 11/12.

-Scott